Turning of The Tables
by Darknight Squire
Summary: Back again. Eleven drow females about to be ordained as high preistesses of Lolth participate in a raid on a human villiage when something goes terribly wrong...
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Forgotten Realms or the setting that this story takes place in. I _did _create the characters and the Drow City of Ra'Acne, but I can't make any money off of them. What a pity

This story takes place shortly before the the events of the _War of The Spider Queen _series. As I have not read the entire series or much of Forgotten Realms outside of the Legend of Drizzt, I create all new characters and settings for this with a few created by of the ones I know.

Chapter One

Deliyah In'anday, second daughter of House In'anday the fourth house of the drow city Ra'Achne, woke in a dark, cramped wagon, seated in a small bench to the side of the vehicle. To her left and right were two other drow women, and across from her on the other side were five more young drow elf maidens. Like her, they were all dressed in plain, coarse cloth and shackled by their wrists and ankles and had gags placed in their mouths.

Despite the dark Deliyah could make out the other's faces, the red eyes, the white hair, their pointed ears, for drow saw more by heat than light. All were her classmates from the Academy of the drow city of Ra'Acne; daughters of leading houses who were soon to be ordained as high priestesses of Lolth the Spider Queen. Leria T'enlla, her roommate and one of the few drow she actually considered a friend. The U'tran twins Yvettal and M'Terril. Kelena Cyle, who was big and strong; an Amazon compared to other drow. And across from them sat Phaeryl Doaxle, third daughter of House Doaxle the second house of Ra'Achne. Jetina M'zorran, second daughter of the fifth house; Tishak Zenrun first daughter of eighth house. Maya Vandar, second daughter of the sixth house, and Suetta Nellaved, fourth daughter of the third house.

And directly across from Deliyah was Malicia Banellst, eldest daughter of the first house. Malicia's mother had become Matron Mother of House Banellst when her elder sister, Malicia's aunt, died under mysterious circumstances. Since then, Malicia, who was already arrogant, acted like quite the princess, ordering her class mates around as if they were first year novices, blackmailing them into doing her chores and even into taking the blame for pranks she had pulled on the instructors.

No, Deliyah was not sorry for Malicia to be here in such distressing circumstances. She just wished she wasn't here with her.

The chains on their shackles were too short to reach their mouths but they could still talk in the silent hand language of the dark elves. _What happened? _Maya signed.

_That food must have been drugged,_ Deliyah answered back.

It had been the night before they were to be ordained and granted the snake headed whips that marked the Spider Queen's high priestesses. As a way of celebrating their final night at the Academy, the ten girls were to accompany a group of drow fighters on a raid to the surface, to collect human slaves to sell in the bazaar. It was against Academy rules, and Deliyah had had her doubts. But when Leria talked of how their names would be remembered at the Academy for millinea to come, and of the profits they'd make from selling the humans in the city bazaar, Deliyah relented-apparently against her better judgment.

For when they and the other drow had come upon the village selected they found it deserted. They looked through, but they found not a single human nor anything worth carrying off as loot.

Angrily, the dark elves had set the houses on fire. And that was when swarms of arrows started coming down on them from out of nowhere, and exploded. The explosions were weak-barely anything to worry about even-except the released a powder into the air that Deliyah had recognized by the scent as the sleep poison drow used to tip their crossbow bolts...

She had awoken with the others, to find themselves chained to the wall of what was obviously a dungeon. They had been gagged then too, and unlike here in the wagon, the chains there were too short for them to sign to each other. There had been nothing for them to do but wait.

And wait they did, for what Deliyah thought were ten days-it was hard for her to keep track, when there was no clock and the lot of them frequently went in and out of sleep. Finally, on the tenth day, a group of richly dressed humans came in, and stripped every one of the drow females naked.

Deliyah had been outraged, both at what they were doing and at her own helplessness. She thought they were going to force themselves on her and the others as she had heard humans did-and as she had seen the males of her house and others do to surface elf and human females that had been brought down to Ra'Achne as slaves. But the humans surprisingly left them unmolested-although they had fondled the drows' breasts and caressed their feminine curves, as if they were inspecting a herd of _rothe_ they were thinking of buying.

The men left, without bothering to dress the drow maidens. A couple of human women came in, with traycarts full of food, and left them in the middle of the dungeon room-then locked the door leading outside behind them. Then as if by magic, the shackles holding the drow in place fell off.

At first they had all been stunned. Then, suddenly realizing how hungry they all were, fell upon the food carts like ravenous beasts. They had lost all sense of decorum or manners, gnawing greedily at dried salted meat and hard baked bread that any cook who served it to them at their houses or the Academy would have been flogged-or more likely flayed alive.

_That must have been it, _Phaeryl replied. _Now what will they do to us? Where are they taking us?_

Deliyah had no idea. Before she could say so, Malicia signed _How dare they do this to us! We are the daughters of the ruling houses of Ra'Achne, the future of our city. They should show us the proper respect!_

_I don't think they agree, _Deliyah signed back sarcastically. These humans were their captors; they could do whatever they wanted with them. What did surprise Deliyah was that so far, the humans hadn't tortured them.

Malicia was about to add something, when the wagon came to a halt. The curtain in the back opened, and a heavily bearded human looked in, and said in the drow language, "All right, you drow bitches, we're letting you out to eat." All at once, the chains holding them to the wagon fell away-although those holding their wrists together, and their ankles, long enough for them to walk, remained. "Now get out, slowly, one at a time."

As much as it galled her, Deliyah knew she had no choice to obey. Evidently so did the others, even the proud Malicia. Slowly they stood up and made their way out of the wagon.

They appeared to be in the middle of a forest of what were called _trees,_ Deliyah knew from her studies at the Academy. And it had to be night, the the big empty space above called the sky was dark, without the big, blinding orb of light known as the sun.

The human, who stood a head taller than even the big Kelena, and so stout he looked almost like an oversized dwarf, pointed to a small fire nearby, surrounded by ten chairs. The drow maidens went over to the chairs and sat down.

A small, weedy little human standing right next to the larger on waved his hand, and chains similar to the ones in the wagon attached themselves to the drows' shackles. Looking around, Deliyah saw the outlines of several men mounted on those things they used in place of riding-lizards-horses, they were called- with hoods pulled over their faces and holding loaded crossbows. Despite herself, Deliyah had to be impressed by the precautions these humans were taking. They may be non-drow, they may be big, dirty, and hairy-but they were not fools.

Another human placed a clay bowl and a spoon in the lap of each drow maiden, and then poured into each bowel a thick porridge. The small man-a mage, evidently-waved his hands again and the gags popped out of the drow maiden's mouths.

As soon as her mouth was free, the Banellst maiden threw her bowel at the beared man. "You expect us to eat this slop!" she shrieked. "This food's fit only for slaves!"

"Of course it is," the bearded man said. His command of the drow tongue was fluent with only a small hint of an accent, Deliyah idly wondered where he had learned it. "Thats just what you are-slaves. The overlord of that villiage you tried to raid sold the lot of you to me; now you're my property. I bought you; I own you-for now. And I feed you what ever I feel like feeding you."

"_I am the eldest daughter of the First House of Ra'Achne!" _Malicia roared. "_I will not eat such filth!"_

"Then you don't get any more tonight," the man replied. "Perhaps by morning, just before we set off, you'll find it more to your liking." Apparently he was amused by Malicia's outbursts.

"_You wouldn't speak to me like that if I wasn't shackled so!"_

"Oh really?" The man raised an eyebrow and winked at his mage. The little man waved his hands, and the shackles fell off of Malicia. A look of surprise and delight, came over her.

"_You fool!" _Malicia cried. Here hands waved in the air as she chanted an invocation of Lolth. She pointed at both the slave-trader and his mage.

And nothing happened.

Their captor yawned. "Why don't you try again. Perhaps your goddess is sleeping."

Again nothing happened. Even Deliyah was shocked; as much as she disliked the Banellst girl, Mailica had been one of the most adept students at the Academy and enjoyed the full faver of Lolth. Something was not right.

The man just walked over to Malicia, and belted her across the face, knocking her down. That had been as much of a shock as the failure of Malicia's magic. In Ra'Achne, in all of the Underdark, humans with a few exceptions were slaves; big and strong compared to drow yes, but also nearly blind and deaf and easy to keep in line with drow magic. For one to strike at a drow was unthinkable. But apparently different rules worked here.

All of the drow maidens just sat there, speechless for several minutes. Then Deliyah found the nerve to say, "May I speak, oh master?"

All at once she wished she hadn't put it in that sarcastic tone. But either he hadn't noticed-or more likely, had but didn't care-for he simply nodded his head. "Go ahead."

Sighing with relief, Deliyah went on, "When we came into that villiage, we found it deserted-then those exploding arrows came down on us and released what knocked us out. They had to be expecting us, and set a trap."

"That's exactly what they did. I wasn't there myself but my partner was." By 'partner,' Deliyah thought he meant his mage, but the slave trader looked off to the riders.

One of them got off his horse and walked toward them. As he got closer, Deliyah's jaw dropped. For not only was this one a drow, it was Batrag In'anday.

Her older brother.

"Hello sister." Bartrag was nearly six feet tall, and unusual for a male, the strongest of their siblings with a barrel chest and unusually broad shoulders; his sire had been a half-drow their mother had taken a fancy to. Had he been fully drow, he might even be the weapons master of their house; instead he was simply a captain of slave-raiders. " I really didn't expect you to be among the others-you rarely were the adventurous type."

"She's your sister?" Their captor said. "In that case-,"

"Never mind, Juba," Bartrag waved his hand. "I want you to profit from our arrangement; after all, you invested so much in it!" He looked at his sister. "In this one human city called Gondag, the priests there can make something they call smokepowder. They use it to fire iron balls out of metal tubes called cannons. Too heavy, slow, and cumbersome to be practical in the caverns of the Underdark. But tie a small bag of it mixed with a powdered form of drow poison to an arrow-hundred of such arrows-light them on fire and shoot-a great way to knock out opponents, isn't it? And it wasn't all that hard, to find the villiage, and make a deal with it's overlord through Juba. I've worked with him before; his retainers have aided my fighter on many slave raids." He let out a brief sigh. "It was amazing, how many fighters I could find willing to go along with the whole thing too."

"You!" Now Malicia had gotten to her feet. "You would betray us to these, these-_humans? _Why?" Drow frequently betrayed each other, even family, but always only to fellow drow, or to ithilids or duregar. Never to surface races, especially not to lowly men.

"Gladly." Now Bartrag turned his gaze to the Banellst girl. "I have endured beatings and humiliations at the hands of females I could easily break like a twig, was only grudgingly accepted into the Academy, and even though I was the best fighter of my class was placed in the bottom half." Angrily, he looked over at his sister. "And when Geross the old weapon master of our house died, I should have been the one to replace him. But, our _dear _Matron Mother gave that position to our cousin Fellroos, who couldn't fight his way out of a classroom full of first year novices at the Academy! All because my sire came from the womb of a human slut!"

Juba stared at Bartrag; he'd never imagined the dark-elf he'd made this bargain with could be so dramatic. He dicided to continue. "You're not a daughter of the first house of Ra-Akee, or whatever the name of your city is. You-_all_ of you-" and he looked at the over drow, "are now mine. I deal in slaves, both for labor and for pleasure. You girls don't look like you'd be much as laberors, but with the right training and condition, you should make excellent whores."

"That's right," laughed Bartrag. "None of you will be serving as high preisteses for the spider hag, not now not ever. You'll be working to satisfy the lust of big sweaty hairy humans-and maybe even dwarves, or halflings-and that pathetic bitch Lolth won't be able to help you!"

Malicia spat into Bartrag's face, and swung at him-only to have her wrists caught in his strong hands. "How dare you blaspheme Lolth that way, you impudent male!"

"I am showing you-," And Bartrag looked again at the seated drow while still holding Malicia in his grip, "-all of you, spoiled, pampered, pretty little princesses, all the respect that you and the Spider Queen deserve. _None!" _Now he laughed again, his red eyes burning bright. "Lolth has no power anywhere, except in the Underdark! That's how Corellon and the other elf gods defeated her, and banished us drow into the caverns!"

Deliyah now felt her heart sink; wherever or not what her brother said about Lolth having no power on the surface was true the Spider Queen's favor was certainly gone from them. They had allowed themselves to be tricked by mere males, and now were in the power of lowly humans. Maybe she could kill herself the first chance she got.

No. Deliyah wanted to live. For now she would accept what happened, a look for a chance to escape. Given precautions this Juba had taken, that didn't seem likely to appear soon, but the drow were a patient race. And surely after she took her revnge on her brother and Juba, she would again find herself in Lolth's favor.

"Perhaps I'll break this one in myself," Bartrag snickered as he held Malicia by her wrists. "It'll be good instruction for her, and a good warning for the others."

"Listen, she's worth a lot to me-" Juba began.

"Relax Juba; you'll still make a profit from her. I won't do anything to detract from her worth in that regard."

Now he threw Malicia to the ground, and unbuckled his trousers. Deliyah knew what he was going to do next; she had watched him do that before to captive female humans and surface elves. But never had she seen him do it to a drow; in their female dominated society where most females were larger and stronger than the males, it was simply unthinkable. But now she and the others were seeing the unthinkable, as Bartag forced himself on the Banellst girl.

It was hard to say which was louder, her brother's laughs, or Malicia's screams.

All right, if you like this story, review it and tell me what you think. It's just an idea I had, and if I get enough reviews I'll add the next chapter where the Delyiah and a few others are sold to a fancy brothel in Waterdeep. And guess which of Elaine Cunningham's characters owns that brothel!


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own Forgotten Realms; it is the property of Wizards of the West Coast. I do own most of the characters I'm using, but I can't make any money off of them-isn't that a shame.

Chapter Two

The wagon came to a halt. _Where are we now, _Delyiah asked in the silent language.

_We'll find out soon enough, _Jetinna answered back. It had been three days since they had stopped at one city and unloaded out for potential buyers. A rather plump human woman had inspected them over, and after several minutes of dickering with Juba in a strange surface tongue, bought both the twins, Tishrek, and Suetta. The remaining seven drow were loaded up into the wagon and hauled off to their next destination.

They had been gagged and shackled the entire time; they sign-talked to each other as much as to alleviate the boredom as anything else.

_Malicia hasn't said anything,_added Maya, _not since Bartrag had his way with her. _

That was true. Ever since she'd been raped, the formerly arrogant first daughter of House Banellst simply sat there, not uttering or signing a single word. She'd walked out of the wagon when it stopped, eat her porridge, and then go back inside with the others at sunrise. She rarely lifted her eyes and when she did, all anyone could see was a blank stare.

_You ask me, it's an improvement,_ said Leria. _Maybe she should be raped more ofton. _

All the drow maidens laughed quietly except Malicia, and big, strong Kelena. The second night the big drow maiden had actually tried to escape, knocking over one of the guards, and running off into the woods, despite her shackled ankles. Yet she'd been caught, and it had taken four of Juba's strongest men and Bartrag to hold her down. But hold her down they did, while they each took a turn having their way with her. Kelina hadn't tried anything since but unlike Malicia her eyes smoldered with bright, red anger.

Suddenly the wagon stopped again. Juba's face poked back into the wagon, and smiled. "all right girls, welcome to Waterdeep!"

Juba's mage undid the drow maidens' shackles with his spells, and the seven were walked out. It was night, the same as it always when whenever the drow were allowed outside. Delyiah looked up; strange as it might seem but she had come to appreciate the beauty of the night sky with the stars shining and the moon, now in a crescent shape hanging high in the sky.

They were in the courtyard of a strangely shaped surface building made out from what surface dwellers called bricks, seemingly three stories tall. Several torches were held in place around the courtyard, illuminating the features of the two individuals descending down a staircase from the building.

The first was a human woman, dressed in a brightly sequined dress and elaborate jewelry adorning her throat, ears, and fingers. With her long curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes she might have been considered beautiful by human standards, save for one thing.

The woman had to be the fattest person Deliyah or any of the drow had ever seen. Three chins wobbled underneath a massively fleshy face. Heavily rouged jowls folded beside bright scarlet lips, enormous breasts stood over a stomach the size of a small boulder stretched tight against a dress that could have served as a tent for a family of gnomes. Her arms, bare save for several bracelets, were bigger around than big Kelina's legs and Deliyah could certainly imagine her legs hidden underneath the massive skirt being as thick as tree trunks.

Her companion by contrast was thin and lithe, and as they walked closer, Deliyah saw his almond shaped eyes, narrow pointed chin, and pointed ears. Rage bubbled up within her as she realized he was a surface elf-a moon elf apparently, by his silvery hair and eyes. He was dressed in a rich dapper manner and his gaze swept over the drow maidens as if they were items in a marketplace he was thinking of buying.

The elf talked back and forth with Juba in the Common tongue, too fast for Delyiah to follow. _Must be haggling over our price,_ she realized. Though she had never practiced the art herself she was familiar with the principals. By the way they shouted at each other, Deliyah guessed the price they were arguing over must be very high.

After a final shout, the elf and the human merchant seemed to come to an agreement. The elf gave a shout, and three halfing girls appeared, each carrying what appeared to be two very large sacks of coins. Juba took each sack in his hand and dug inside. He took out several coins, bit into them, and nodded.

The fat woman pulled aside Deliyah, Malicia, and Kelina. _The elf paid that much for just the three of us? _Deliyah wondered. In a way it was flattering; the woman who'd bout the twins, Tishrek and Suetta had gave only two sacks of coins for the four of them and and they weren't half the size of the ones the elf gave Juba.

The elf looked again at his three new acquisitions as Juba loaded the remaining drow maidens back into the wagon. He walked up to Malicia and suddenly fixed a simple plain silver earring on her right ear. The elf wiped some of the blood flowing from Malicia's earlobe onto a silver ring in the palm of his other hand. Deliyah realized this must be some form of slave ring, a magical device of many variations that binded a slave to his or her master.

The elf next did the same to Deliyah, who winced a little at the pain, but did nothing to resist. Resistance at this point was useless she knew, not when she knew little of her locations or the ways back to the Underdark. Later, though, latter would be a different story.

Kelina, however, was not so patient. As soon as the elf reached for her earlobe, she swung at him, using the chain between the shackles on her wrists as a sort of whip. But the elf seemed prepared. He deftly dodged he blow and tipped her, landing on her back. "I've seen humans who were faster," he said in perfectly fluent, unaccented Drowic.

"Kill me now," snarled the big drow. "I'd rather die."

"After what I spent to acquire you?" the elf responded as he clipped the ring to her earlobe and wiped the blood on the ring in his palm. His command of Drowic was even better than Juba's, with no trace of accent. "That would be a waste of good money." He smiled. The smile Deliyah thought, was like the one her own mother wore when she was about to have a slave flogged or beaten, or was plotting the elimination of a rival House. "And Elaith Craulnober does not waste money if he can help it."

The elf walked over to the fat woman and handed her the ring. She placed it on one of her pudgy fingers, which was already adorned with three other rings. Deliyah realized they must be slave rings too.

Elaith Craulnober turned back to the drow. "I have very little time left, so I'll make one thing clear: you three are now my property, and the rings I put in your ears are impossible to remove; try and you'll feel an extremely powerful shock. It will be impossible for you to disobey me or Madame Porcina here," he said, indicating the fat woman. "I paid that thief Juba a great deal for you three, and I intend to get my money's worth. Do as we say, obey Porcina as if she were your matron mother, and your lives will be quite pleasant; try to rebel, and it will be-unpleasant." He let that last word hang in the air. "The three of you will address me as Lord Elaith; and Porcina as Madame. If you try to leave the grounds of this brothel, she will know." The elf paused, then went on, "By the end of the year, I'll expect you three to have paid back the money I spent on you-with interest. Now, go with these halflings to get cleaned up and eat, then you'll be shown your quarters.

* * *

As the halflings led the three drow maidens away, Elaith nodded to Porcina. "These three should do well enough-most of the customers we get likely never saw a drow, and and the fear most have of their kind should only add to their appeal. Keep them separate for now, so they won't be plotting who knows what." Elaith had done business with the drow of Skullport and knew no small amount of pride that he could match them at deviousness and duplicity. "After all," he smiled, "this is Porcina's House of Exotic Pleasure."

"And if they don't," a pair of tusks grew from Porcina's lower jaw and and broad pointed ears poked through her blonde tress; although her other features remained human the changes combined with her weight gave her a pig like appearance, "I do wonder what drow taste like."

Elaith shot a hand toward Porcina. All of a sudden, the fat woman was gasping for breath and fell to her knees as a silver choker embedded in the thick flesh around her neck contracted. Her red lips stretched forward as they merged with her nose into a wide broad snout; rings lipped off her fingers as they fused partway into hooves. Porcina lay on her side, snorting and squealing as she struggled to breathe.

Elaith was not turning Porcina into a pig; that was beyond the elf's magical ability. He was simply invoking the curse on her. Less than a decade ago, Porcina had been one of the most beautiful and celebrated courtesans in all Waterdeep; Elaith had even lain with her a couple of times. Then one day she had spurned the attentions of a man because he was so ridiculously fat-and unknown to her was also a devil swine. In retaliation the man infected her with his own particular brand of lycanthropy which not only caused Porcina to turn into a carnivorous pig at will but also gave her the appetites and habits befitting one. Less than a year later she had become so obese that only those with a bizarre fixation would want her. Elaith had come to her rescue by offering her a job managing the brothel he'd just opened-but as always, the rogue moon elf's generosity had a price.

"I did not buy these drow for you to stuff your overfed face!" Elaith roared. He twisted his hand again, and the silver choker squeezed even tighter. "Remember, I said they have a year. If _anything_ happens to them before then, and I suspect you had anything to do with it-well, I know plenty of butcher shops that will pay well for a nice fat hog carcass."

Elaith lowered his hand, and Porcina found out she could breath again. Her pig like features reverted to human, and after she picked up her fallen rings, she looked back at her employer. Since becoming a devil swine Porcina had eaten her share of elves and found them quite tasty. But this one, she looked at only with fear and dread.

* * *

Deliyah sat on the small cot in the room she'd been taken to, thinking. Now, for the first time since she'd been captured, she truly had time to think and analyze her situation.

The halflings had taken her, Malicia, and Kelina to a large bath were they were scrubbed and wiped clean, then dressed in simple white tunics. Next they were taken to a room where Madame Porcina waited with a fully bedecked table.

The food set before them would have been rare delicacies in the Underdark yet Deliyah guessed were common enough on the surface They hadn't fallen onto the meal like they had back at the castle dungeon; Juba had kept the drow maidens well fed on the journey. Yet Deliyah hadn't eaten much, and it wasn't simply because Porcina had eaten most of the food laid before them all by herself. The fat woman belched and farted and talked with her mouth full when she bothered to speak at all. Deliyah couldn't understand what she said to the halfling servants, but doubted snorts and grunts were a regular part of the Common speech. In all, their new mistress's manners were more than enough to kill most of Deliyah's appetite.

The room she was shown was rather sparse, the only furnishings were the cot, a small vanity, and an oil lamp. Deliyah hadn't turned it on; as a creature of the Underdark she didn't need it. To her surprise the vanity did have a small mirror; at home they were curiosities reserved primarily for wizards. She opened the small drawer of the vanity and found it to be full of various cosmetics and perfumes; the closet near the bed had a number of elegant looking dresses.

So far, she saw no chances to escape or get away. She had no idea where this city, apparently called Waterdeep from what she could snatch from the conversation between Porcina and the halflings, was or if there were any caves leading down to the Underdark nearby. And she didn't know where Juba or Bartrag were; if she were to regain the favor of Lolth and be welcomed back by her family she'd need to revenge herself on them and show proof of the deed.

All this would be easier if she had someone to conspire with. Yet the other two drow would not be of any use. Kelina certainly would want to escape and get her revenge on their captors but the big drow maiden was no intriguer; she always relied more on her fists than her wits and she had only the smallest talent for clerical magic. Deliyah suspected that Kelina's matron mother must have paid the Academy administration some hefty bribes to let her train as a priestess.

And Malicia. The old Malicia might have been able to contrive a way to escape with her, but more likely would have betrayed Deliyah to ensure her own escape. And from what Deliyiah had seen of her for the past several days, something had died in that girl. It was like being raped had taken all the will to live out of the first daughter of House Banellst.

A knock on the door broke the drow out of her thoughts. "Come in," she muttered; unlike at home or the Academy she was in position to demand anyone to leave.

"May I come in?" The female elf who answered should have inspired rage in Deliyah but at the moment she simply didn't have the energy. A glance at the left ear said the elf wore a slave earring too. Since they were both slaves to the same master in the same situation what point to hating?

"You may."

The elf stepped in. Now that Deliyah had got a closer look at her, she was taller than Deliyah by more than a head and and had more full and lush body than of the elves brought back to Ra'Achne from raids. Yet her pointed ears and slanted almond eyes told of elven blood. _She must be a half-elf, _Deliyah realized, she'd seen half-drow females with similar builds.

"My name, is Vixandria," she told Deliyah. As she spoke, Deliyah noted that her lips didn't match the fluent drowic that was come in from her mouth. _She must be using some magic device to translate, _the drow thought and made a mental note to learn better Common. "I'm to be your trainer."

"Trainer?" The drow arched an eyebrow. "What's to train? The customer comes, pays his fee, I take him to the room and we do the deed. That's how the business is done, isn't it?" That's how it worked in the brothels at Ra'Achne that kept human and surface elf females where most half-drow were born, from what Deliyah knew about them-her family had managed several.

The half-elf woman chuckled. "If you're a common street walker," said Vixandria. "But it isn't like that here, and it's certainly not like it is for you drow where if a female wants a male, she just orders him to pleasure her." _A lot you know,_ Deliyah thought; a female drow often needed the permission of a male's matron mother if she wanted him. And while some did order males about, she always preferred her lovers to be willing and desire her as much as she desired them. "It's pretty much the opposite. You have to do what the customer wants. And what's more, you have to learn to be able to anticipate their desires, spot which has the largest purse and is willing to spend the most, and how to catch their eyes. And further, it's most important that you prove you're something special, so they keep coming back once the novelty of your being a drow wears off."

"Is it?" Deliyah asked. "And what's my gain if I do this?" True she was a slave and would have to do it anyway but but if there was someway she could gain some leverage, she needed to know.

"You get better food, better clothes," said Vixandria. "You also get some limited freedom to go about the city to places like the bazaar or the eateries, maybe find a little side business in the taverns." Deliyah absorbed all this. True, going out in the day didn't appeal to her, but it might be possible to do so at night and learn more about the city. "And what's more-this brothel-it specializes in the exotic, which you drow are. As am I." Now suddenly gray fur grew over Vixandria's body and underneath her clothes; he face stretched into a kobold like muzzle, her pointed ears became broader and moved to the top of her head. The half-elf's feet became paws and a busy gray tail sprouted underneath her skirt.

Deliyah blinked. "You're a-" she struggled for the words; what was th name of that type of lycanthrope so hated and feared on the surface? "-a werewolf?"

Vixandria' reverted back to her half-elf form. "A werefox, actually. Or a foxwoman, as we call ourselves." Her smile got wider. "A werewolf would have attacked you and torn out your throat. They're difficult to control even with slave rings which is why this brothel doesn't have any; Men can have strange tastes, but only one who was suicidal would want to try to straddle one of those!"

"I see," said Deliyah.

"And," said Vixandria as she took a deep breath, "it's most important I tell you this-you really keep the customers coming. A year ago, Lord Craulnober added a small room filled with sea water and put in a pair of mermaids and three aquatic elves he'd acquired. They were popular for a while, but once the novelty of them wore off, customers stopped coming and-" and she stopped fearful of what she was about to say.

"What happened to them?" Deliyah needed to know, the more she knew about potential danger the better she could deal with it.

"Madame Porcina had a seafood dinner."

End of chapter two.

Okay, so Elaith Craulnober owns the place. I always figured he'd likely have a hand in the prostitution business, and that he'd have dealt with drow a few times-and I don't mean in the fighting sense. And yes to the D&D purists, I know that devil swine belong to a different D&D setting although I forget which one.

For the next chapter, Deliyah and the other drow maidens go through their training. No, there's not going to be any gratuitous sex and anything erotic will be off screen so to speak. And I'm thinking about having some well known forgotten realms characters show up here-and I'd like some suggestions from the readers. Like would anyone be surprised if Jaraxle showed up?


End file.
